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. 2024 Nov 13;72(45):25135-25145.
doi: 10.1021/acs.jafc.4c07050. Epub 2024 Oct 30.

Association among Gestational Weight Gain, Fucosylated Human Milk Oligosaccharides, and Breast Milk Microbiota─An Evidence in Healthy Mothers from Northwest China

Sijin Jiang  1 , Jiale Qin  1 , Lu Shi  1 , Jiayu Feng  1 , Jianhui Mo  1 , Wanghong Su  1 , Yue Cheng  1 , Jia Lv  1   2 , Qiang Li  1 , Shaoru Li  1 , Lingxia Zeng  1 , Bei Han  1 , Jing Zhou  2
Affiliations

Association among Gestational Weight Gain, Fucosylated Human Milk Oligosaccharides, and Breast Milk Microbiota─An Evidence in Healthy Mothers from Northwest China

Sijin Jiang et al. J Agric Food Chem. .

Abstract

This study investigates the relationship among maternal secretor status, human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs), and the composition of breastmilk microbiota in a cohort of healthy mothers from Shaanxi province, China. The results demonstrated that 78.9% of the mothers were secretors, exhibiting an active fucosyltransferase 2 gene (fut2) and producing α-1,2 fucosylated HMOs, which significantly affected the HMO profile. Secretor mothers had higher levels of 2'-FL and LNFPI in contrast to nonsecretors who displayed high levels of 3'-FL, LNFPII, and LNT. Furthermore, secretor mothers exhibited greater diversity in HMOs compared with nonsecretors, although no significant differences were observed in the breast milk microbiota composition. A correlation was identified between specific HMOs (2'-FL, 3'-FL, 6'-SL, and LNFPI) and the microbiota composition. Notably, mothers with normal weight gain during pregnancy demonstrated higher microbial diversity, with increased abundance of beneficial genera such as Bifidobacterium, Lactobacillus, and Ligilactobacillus. These findings contribute to the development of potential guidelines for providing personalized nutrition.

Keywords: HMOs; breast milk microbiota; fut2; pregnancy weight gain; secretion status.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing financial interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Overview of seven HMOs present in breast milk of mothers with different secretor genotypes. (A) Comparison of the abundances of total and fucosylated HMOs (F-HMOs) between secretor (SE) and nonsecretor (NS) mothers. (B) Comparison of 7 HMOs between secretor (SE) and nonsecretor (NS) mothers. ns, P > 0.05(two-tailed, Mann–Whitney test).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Composition of microbiota in 71 human milk samples collected at 42 days postpartum analyzed at the phylum level (A) and the top 10 genera (B).
Figure 3
Figure 3
CCA diagram of HMOs (red arrows) with bacterial genus (black arrows) in SE (secretor mothers) and NS (nonsecretor mothers) groups.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Spearman correlation analysis was conducted between the top 40 abundant bacterial genera with HMOs. *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01; and ***P < 0.001.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Correlation of LNT with Bifidobacterium (A) and Lactobacillus (B) under secretor status stratification. SE, secretor mother; NS, nonsecretor mother.
Figure 6
Figure 6
α-Diversity analysis of breast milk microbiota in NORWG (normal weight gain mother) and UNOWG (abnormal weight gain mother). Shannon index (A) and Simpson index (B).
Figure 7
Figure 7
β-Diversity analysis of the breast milk microbiota in NORWG (normal weight gain mother) and UNOWG (abnormal weight gain mother) by PCoA analysis based on Bray–Curtis distance (A) and weighted-Unifrac distance (B) at the genus level.
Figure 8
Figure 8
LEfSe analysis human milk microbiota between NORWG (normal weight gain mother) and UNOWG (abnormal weight gain mother) in the genus level.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Differential genera of human milk microbiota between NORWG (normal weight gain mother) and UNOWG (abnormal weight gain mother) using random forest analysis and the Mann–Whitney test.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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